it's a whole30 lent!

growing up, we went to catholic mass every saturday night.  as i got older, saturday nights took on a completely different meaning.  there was definitely mass, but it was more along the lines of mass booty shaking.  sweet baby jesus for sure did not approve.

as a grown adult, i've become one of "those" catholics.  the ones we used to scowl at on holidays-because, you know, they only show up on holidays.  and boy oh boy, do we "holiday believers" really know how to pack a church.  however, as slack as my church attendance record is, i've kept one practice for the past couple of years: the lent sacrifice.

for those of you that are not aware, lent is upon us.  it's the 40 day period between ash wednesday and easter.   as a way of penitence, most catholics choose to abstain from something for the duration.  i've done all kinds of lenten challenges: from candy to tortilla chips.  (one really needs to know me to understand how hard that was)  no matter how many days i made it through without as much as a sneak of my forbidden lent item...one thing was for sure, it would be in my easter basket and i would demolish it.  nothing celebrates the resurrection of jesus quite like a girl pounding her way through a basket filled with brownies and sweettarts galore.

i may have only had half the idea right for lent.  lent is about conversion, about giving up a vice or a sin. the ultimate goal is not to just last 40 days, but to make it a lifelong commitment.

for the past couple of months, the boy and i have been toying with making a transformation to a paleo lifestyle.  since i was in middle school, i've dealt with chronic daily headaches.  and to make this lady even more lovely, i've also been handled one sassy gut.  so sassy that i was once blessed with the nickname "poopchute."   no lie.  it's a wonder the boy still finds me attractive.

several years ago, i started to really look at what i was putting into my body.  i mean, this is the body that is going to have to make some babies in a few years.  do i really know years of daily medicines haven't built up some toxic sludge inside of me?  and more recently, i've begun to look at the foods i eat.  i gave up cheese, wine, and chocolate...but was still dealing with some junky feeling symptoms.  if i was still dealing with junk, it must be because i was still eating junk.  paleo just started to make sense for me.

and in true jen holmes form, if i'm going to try something, i'm going to try it all out.  and that's why i've chosen to do #whole30 for my lent sacrifice.  it's a huge change in the way i eat and will hopefully lead to a huge change in the way i eat for the rest of my life.

let's get some basics down:
paleo: no dairy (depending on how strict you are with the diet...i'll probably just include greek yogurt), no grains, no legumes, nothing processed.  you can have sugar but it needs to be in a pure variety (ie: agave, a pure maple syrup, etc)
whole30: nothing processed, no sugar (real or artificial), no grains, no legumes, no white potatoes, no dairy, and no alcohol.  And most important-no "paleo-ifying" dessert or junk food choices-no coconut milk ice cream, no almond flour pancakes, etc.

basically, if a caveman could have hunted it, or gathered it, you can eat it.  so no krispy kremes.  or ben & jerry's.  or mcdonald's nuggets.

it's only been a few days since i started my whole30 adventure.  valentine's day was a real pain in the keester since candy was all up in my grill.  & i still want to go face down into a vat of skittles.  or starbursts.  or gummy bears.  and seriously, i'm going to miss beans.  

yours in legume free love,
jen